It’s Hard to Imagine

The clock is ticking. The Burnetts need to get the hell out of New England. The word “hell” is intentional. Because hell is warm. Just saying it warms Mel up. It almost snowed on us this morning!

Greg is monitoring the weather every 4 hours. However, the path between the US and Bermuda is apparently where Master Oogway, the Atlantic wind god, gets out his frustrations after being forced to create the well-behaved, boring, predictable trade winds elsewhere. I mean, what other way is there to create witty aphorisms about life than to mix it up once in a while and see what happens? To understand our sailing challenge, here is the map of ocean currents issued by the captain of SV Libra, a seasoned sailing instructor, as he endured 50-kt gusts as he made his way from Newport to Bermuda on Nov 4:

Nevertheless, pilot Greg is used to making go/ no go decisions based on weather. He does a fantastic job. Testimonial: Mel has been along for the ride during the last 30+ years of such decisions, and yet she lives. She has many memories of sleeping comfortably in the passenger seat of their Cessna, only to be rudely awakened by Greg in order to appreciate at 360-degree view of distant thunderclouds and exotic weather phenomena such as sheet lightning, virga, and pilot’s glory. Don’t worry – we are not delusional – as scientists familiar with the fickleness of chaos theory, control design, and the limbic system, we still have plenty of humility regarding our own ability to predict the workings of nature.

Nevertheless, it looks like we may be heading off to either Bermuda or St. Martin on Thursday. Greg said it all depends on a front, and lows, and easterlies, and some other weathery things Mel does not understand. What she does understand is that, even though Bermuda is less than 5 days away, she should provision for 10 days or more. Why? They might have to skip Bermuda and head straight for St. Martin. You see, sometimes we have to go a different direction than where we should be going in order to keep the wind in our back quarter. That means almost up our butt, for non-sailors.

Butt wind is an easier ride than boob wind.

— Mel

This all means that these days, the Burnetts are in a frenzy. They are finishing up boat projects and buying anything and everything they think they might need someday and will be cheaper in the US. Our waterline is lower than specs, as our bilges are filled with Amazon shit. The cardboard recycling dumpster at Crocker’s Boatyard is full. Nutmeg Pharmacy of New London is spending hours counting out a year’s worth of pills. ACE hardware points us to the storage bin area whenever we walk in. The cashiers of Defender Marine have subscribed to our blog. And this is all before Mel has stocked up on her beloved Bounty-Select-A-Size!

We apologize to the US ahead of time, as with our imminent departure, its GDP is bound to drop. Less consumption. Just what it needs right now.

Mel will keep you posted regarding their official departure date. She will also try to submit a brief post every day. If she isn’t barfing, that is.

And so we finally come to the reason for the post title. Right now, the outside temp is 36 degrees (“Feels like 23”). Lately, we have been working our butts off, preparing for departure. So we are miserable. This fact makes it hard to imagine our future life in a different world, one where we are warm, even hot, relaxed, even idle, and Mel has time to play her “Mel Caribbean” playlist, whip out her ukulele, and complain about how hot it is. But that is the cool thing about cruising. Two weeks from now, after we match our wits to the wind and waves in alternating watches, our entire domicile, ala The Wizard of Oz, will land in a different world. To celebrate, Mel will put her disgusting wool leggings that she has worn for 21 days straight in the “off-season” dry bag! She can’t wait!

Also, for the boaty people reading this, here is our Boat Projects Page that details Jerry’s various upgrades he has endured since we boarded him in July. Mel is currently looking at eight Sterilite containers filled with future boat projects, so this page will continue to enlarge over time…

The photos for this post are a walking tour of New London. Anticipating being penned in the boat for up to two weeks, twitchy Mel has been walking around the environs of Crocker’s Boatyard every morning. From the river, New London looks a bit rough, and presumably it involuted ever since whaling lost popularity. However, there are many community-minded people in New London that are making an amazing effort to glam up this historic town, and hopefully the photos below will show this.

Happy wakes, Mel